ANN ARBOR – Double check your parking tickets because the ePark app has been issuing fines to cars with active sessions today.
I know this because I witnessed a parking referee place a notice of violation on my windshield while I was working downtown this afternoon.
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When I approached him to explain that I have an active session, he said I probably started paying when I saw him issuing the ticket.
I showed him my account that demonstrated I had been paying for over an hour. He took a screenshot and told me to wait while he went back to my car.
He took the ticket off the windshield and told me it was taken care of while calling someone and saying, "Your app is broken. It's saying people aren't paying when they are."
Generally when I receive a parking ticket, I assume it's an expired session and pay it immediately since the price rises after 24 hours.
But clearly there is now an issue with the system.
When I called the city of Ann Arbor shortly after 2 p.m., while they said they had no official statement at the time, they told me they had received a number of complaints "in the last ten minutes." They said that they are "working to get the issue resolved" and are encouraging people to "contest their parking tickets."
Republic Parking, for its part, said that they hadn't yet had a complaint today about false tickets. "Always question enforcement," a representative said, echoing the city's response.
Update: A representative from Republic Parking contacted me to let me know that there was a delay in communication within the Passport system. While active sessions were appearing in the backend, that information was not updating in the system parking officers use to check parking spot sessions.
She said there is no longer a delay and the system is working normally. It is not a recurring issue, and this is the first instance they've had of a breakdown of communication with the app.
We'll update this story as we receive more information.
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